Timeline: The Taliban

Key dates in the history of the Taliban and Contemporary Afghanistan

by Amy Fletcher

September

The Taliban fight back with renewed strength. Suicide bombings
and roadside attacks become more frequent and more deadly; nearly
100 are reported to have died from such violence in August and
September.

Pakistan is repeatedly blamed for supporting and allowing the
infiltration of bombers and insurgents. Pakistani leadership
denies supporting the Taliban, but admits that bombers are being
trained in border regions.

October and November

NATO air attacks are blamed for the deaths of dozens of
civilians. Tony Blair cautions that the fight against the Taliban
and Al Qaeda could take decades.

Meanwhile, the opium harvest in Afghanistan reaches the
highest levels ever recorded, the United Nations reports, as
cultivation rises 59% during 2006. Most experts agree that the
drug trade is a major source of funding for the Taliban (although
there are conflicting opinions about whether or not Al Qaeda is
similarly situated). Afghanistan currently produces 92% of the
world’s opium.

January

Mullah Dadullah, a top Taliban commander, vows in a telephone
conversation that his forces will not let up. Days later, in an
email exchange between journalists and Mullah Muhammad Omar, the
Taliban chief makes a similar promise, saying he will never
negotiate with the U.S.-backed Karzai government, and that
violence will continue until foreign troops withdraw from
Afghanistan..

February

General Dan K McNeil takes over command of the 35,000 member
NATO forces in Afghanistan. McNeil served as commander of the
U.S-led coalition there from 2002 to 2003.

During Vice President Cheney’s visit, a suicide bomber attacks
near the U.S. air base, killing 23 people.

Authorities in Pakistan arrest Mullah Obaidullah, a member of
the Taliban’s inner circle. Despite the high-profile nature of the
arrest, Pakistan continues to be criticized for failing to
confront the Taliban.

March and April

Italy agrees to exchange an Italian journalist for 5 Taliban
prisoners, provoking strong criticism from the U.S. and other
nations. Nearly a month later a second hostage captured at the
same time as the freed Italian is killed soon after Karzai
announces an end to such prisoner exchanges. The body of the
second hostage is dropped off at a hospital.

A note of hope is sounded when health officials report that
infant mortality dropped by 18 percent in Afghanistan, a fact that
is heralded as a sign of recovery and progress.

May

Afghan officials report that a U.S. airstrike that killed 130
Taliban also left 21 civilians dead. A few days later, when the
estimate grows to 42 civilians, angry protestors sack and burn
buildings and Karzai warns that the Afghan people will not
tolerate a foreign military presence much longer

.

A key Taliban operational commander with ties to Al Qaeda,
Mullah Dadullah, is killed by Afghan, American, and NATO forces.
Following his death, the victim’s brother, Haji Mansour Dadullah,
also a Taliban leader, claims to receive a letter of condolence
from Osama bin Laden, urging him to follow in his brother’s
footsteps.

June

A Taliban spokesman offers to trade 5 hostages, all Afghan
health ministry officials held since March, for Mullah Dadullah’s
remains, which have already been buried in an undisclosed
location. When the remains are not turned over, one of the
hostages is beheaded. The other four hostages are released when
the remains are delivered.

75 Allied troops are reported to have been killed in the first
five months of 2007, including 38 Americans.

July

The Taliban kills one of a group of 23 South Korean hostages
after their demands for a prisoner exchange are not met with a
positive response by the Afghan government. Both hostages were
members of a Protestant church group who were on a relief mission
when they were abducted from a public bus on the highway from
Kabul to Kandahar. The Taliban threatens to kill more hostages if
the government is not more cooperative.

In response to
concern about mounting civilian casualties in Afghanistan, NATO
announces plans to use more restrained tactics in fighting the
Taliban. More than 330 civilians have been killed this year,
according to Afghan officials and Western aid workers.

October

November

Sixty Taliban militants fire on a town from a mountain
overlook in the Day Kundi province pushing out the police and
cutting off the main road. One militant dies and one policeman is
wounded in fighting. Bakwal and Gulistan districts in Farrah
province have also been overrun by the militants.

February

About 80 people are killed and nearly 100 injured when a suicide bomber attacks at a crowded dogfight near Kandahar. A local police chief Abdul Hakim Jan is among the dead. It is the worst suicide attack since 2001. The Taliban denies responsibility for the attack, but Afghan officials express skepticism about the claim.

May

June

U.S. soldiers launch an air strike aimed at Taliban militants who had crossed the border from Pakistan into Afghanistan and fired on American-led troops. Eleven members of a Pakistani paramilitary force die, angering Pakistani officials and increasing tension between the U.S. and Pakistan.

Fighters attack guards outside a prison in Kandahar and then launch a rocket-propelled grenade at a fuel tanker parked outside the prison. The blast kills several guards and opens a hole in the prison wall. About 900 inmates escape, including 350 members of the Taliban.

July

According to the Pentagon and icasualties.org, June 2008 was the deadliest month for U.S. and coalition troops since the American-led invasion began in 2001. Forty-six troops were killed even though the number of coalition troops reached a high point.

More than 40 people are killed and about 130 wounded in a suicide bombing outside the Indian Embassy in Kabul. Two Indian diplomats died in the blast. It is the deadliest suicide bombing since the U.S.-led invasion began in 2001.

Nine U.S.soldiers and at least 15 NATO troops die when Taliban militants boldly attack an American base in Kunar Province, which borders Pakistan. It's the most deadly against U.S. troops in three years.

August

As many as 15 suicide bombers backed by about 30 militants attack a U.S. military base, Camp Salerno, in Bamiyan. Fighting between U.S. troops and members of the Taliban rages overnight. No U.S. troops are killed. In another brazen attack, 10 French paratroopers are killed and more than 20 are wounded in an ambush by about 100 militants about 30 miles east of Kabul.

More than 60 people are killed in a twin suicide bombing at the Pakistan' Ordnance Factories, a complex of 16 buildings in the town of Wah that employs 20,000. The Taliban says the attack is in retaliation for the military's recent campaign against militants in the region of Bajaur.

As many as 90 Afghan civilians, 60 of them children, die in an attack in the western village of Azizabad. It is one of the deadliest airstrikes since the war began in 2001, and the deadliest on civilians. The U.S. military refutes the figures, however, which were confirmed by the UN, claiming that the airstrike, in response to an attack by militants, killed five civilians and as many as 25 members of the Taliban.